Can anyone help convert .3ds to .mc9

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

After reading a thread about the skull geo where Cadist mentioned the 3dcaffe site I went to the site and found a .3ds file of a woman. I would like to try and machine one for demo, just dont know where to start to get this file into a workable format.

 

Thanks,

Zippy

[Lee.]

the only way I could see in MC is if it were in .3dm format, which is a Rhino file.

 

Not much help I know.

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

Cadist had said somthing about converting it to .Stl or .Iges first but Im clueless and dont have these MC converters anyways...

[Chris Rizzo]

You can go to Rhino's website and download a 30 day trial version. I did something simlar to what you are doing a while back. I ended up converting the 3ds file in rhino, and if I recall correctly it was a very rough approximation of what the nice picture looked like. I then creating a surface on top of that using Rhino's "drape" feature. THEN bringing it into mcam as an IGES...i think.

 

The point is I was very helpful to have Rhino and be able to use it's great surface tools to tweek the 3ds.

 

hth

 

It was a few years ago, but that was my general system.

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

cmr,

Thanks for the Rhino tip!!! I downloaded the softwear and opend the 3ds file, but it didnt come through very well. I went ahead and tryed the drape and saved the surface as an iges. It''s kind of hard to see exactly what it is on the rhino, I don't have any Idea how to use it, just pushed buttons and clicked until somthing happend. I will take that to a friend w/ MC Iges converter on monday and see what it looks like in MC.

 

Zippy

[Thad]

quote:

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Im clueless and dont have these MC converters anyways

---

Aaron,

 

I assume you have access to MC since you're here at this forum. MC comes with STL and IGES translators. Main menu-File-Converters should get you started.

 

Thad

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

Thad,

I guess I'm dumber than I thought!!!

I assumed that since we where going to have to pay extra for the STEP converter that we would have to pay for all of them. And all this time I have ben going to the shop down the street to convert the step files. We dont get files from customers very often so I havent ben able to convence the big man to spend the cash. In future I will see if I can get them to send me an iges.

 

P.S. does Iges support solids?

 

Zippy

[crazy^millman]

Well the New MR105 has step for free now so if you were on Maintence it would be free.

 

 

HTH

[Chris Rizzo]

Iges conversion will bring in surfaces. parasolid and solidworkds of whatever form (.sldprt,.x_t,.x_ are solids. If your doing all sorts of conversions from .3ds and iges, you'd better be happy working with surfaces.

 

oh, sorry, you could go to a sheet solid AFTER an IGES with surfaces come in.

[Brent Wilkerson]

Is it a 3ds file?

 

In AutoCAD use the command 3DSIN this will import the file into AutoCAD. And since 3D Studio Max is an Autodesk product it should go better good. Then from AutoCAD is the command IGESOUT or STEPOUT.

 

Now if you don't have AutoCAD this could be a problem.

Can you email, upload or link the file(s) you are having problems with?

 

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

Our maintence expired a cople of months befor MR105 came out, still on MR0304. Will "x" also have these converters as standerd? I will give AutoCAD a shot later today and upload the file this evening. You guys are awsome!!!!

 

Zippy

[mcpgmr]

I have a program call Hijaak Pro that will read and convert .3ds files. If you put it on the FTP I can give it a try when I get home today. HTH !

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

mcpgme,

I put the file in the solids folder under "woman.3ds"

 

Thanks for the offer

[cadist]

I think I am little late on this, but may help.

My idea was similar to brent's. 3Ds format comes better in mechanical desktop. from there you can export iges or stl. STL is more recomended as both are mesh bodies.

HTH

[mcpgmr]

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I put the file in the solids folder under "woman.3ds"

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I'll take a look at it tonight when I get home. If it comes in clean I'll bring it to work and convert it for you. You can e-mail it to me at work and I'll play with it a lunch time.

[Brent Wilkerson]

Uploading women2.zip....which is a 27mb IGES file zipped to about 3mb.

 

 

Good luck

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

Brent,

Thanks a ton.

Came through good, but it's still missing some paches. This is turning out to be a real pain in the A-HO... there is like a million surfaces, I dont even have enough memory to shade the damb thing. Gonna keep plug'n away at it and see if I can make somthing workable out of it.

 

Zippy

[Brent Wilkerson]

Hey no problem...looking at a nekkid women in 3d computer model form I have no problem.

 

It looks like it was from a 3d scan. I saw the patches missing thru out the model. It was all 3dfaces/surfaces.

 

Good luck!

[Müřlıń®]

Save as DXF from Acad. Imoprt to Pro-e and save as STL.

 

Use stl2surf.dll

 

Works like a champ no missing patches.

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

Murlin,

Thanks for another hot tip. Problem is I dont have Pro-e and it turns out we have Acad light, were a low bugget joint, so not much I can do.

I did manage to carv her out from the hooters down and she came out fairly nice, a bit facteted though. I would like to smooth it out. I thought about trying to project a grid of points on the surfaces and create a point cloud surface. Not sure this would work but i figured it was worth a shot.

 

Zippy

[mcpgmr]

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I did manage to carv her out from the hooters down and she came out fairly nice,

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